Sandblast cabinet -what media

[67drake]

I just assembled my blast cabinet. Cheap HF one a bought a couple years ago, but never had room to set it up.
Just wondering what you guys are using, and pros and cons. I have a hopper type one for outdoor use that I used to run a pretty aggressive black grit through. I assume this would also work in this cabinet one?
Also would like opinions on blasting more delicate items like aluminum and wood.
Thanks

 

[Jim greengo]

I had 1 of those harbor freight cabinets,they leak like a sieve.
I'd silicone the daylights out of every joint on it.

 

[MarineScott]

I use Black Diamond coal slag in my H.F blast cabinet.

 

[Steve_P]

It depends on the material you are blasting and what the desired finish you want. I use aluminum oxide in one cabinet and glass beads in another. If I want the part to look "new" and shiny, and it's small, I will blast it and put it in a vibratory polisher with ceramic media.

Like nearly everything else, there's no one answer to a generic question like this, and isn't going to be one media that's "best" for everything. Glass beads will take forever to remove paint and rust from steel; but is better on aluminum....

 

[isb cornbinder]

I had 1 of those harbor freight cabinets,they leak like a sieve.
I'd silicone the daylights out of every joint on it.

I had that exact model in blue. It was ****. Leaks and a useless blast gun plagued the cabinet. I bought a good quality gun and ran it for a year. The gun needed some parts and none were available, because the store chain stopped offering them.
I eventually gave it away and bought a MOD-U-BLAST 24-48. The new cabinet and components are high quality and cost many times as much as the **** unit. MOD-U-BLAST claim to have been made in Alberta Canada/ My MOD-U-BLAST has a built on filtered vacuum system
Do I like the new cabinet? YES, very much. It was worth the extra money to me. The additional cost was lost in the good feelings of perfect performance.
I seldom need different media, so changing media is not a consideration. My main media is glass beads.

 

[67drake]

My main media is glass beads.

Thanks!

 

[67drake]

I would estimate 98% of its use would be blasting rust off steel parts.

 

[isb cornbinder]

Thanks!

I have used aluminium slag media. It is very harsh and really tears into the work. This blast media can destroy the ceramic liner in a gun in an hour or so. It tore a hole in one of the gloves and ripped my finger a bit. I was picking black slag out of my finger, after.

 

[CudaChick1968]

X2 on the silicone, and decide what you'll be blasting first to choose the proper media. Aggressive medias remove rust and millscale and softer ones like aluminum oxide provide a smooth, uniform result on non-ferrous metals.

No matter what brand of cabinet you have, get a TP Tools Blast Gun Upgrade Kit and a pack of carbide bits. I'm still on my first carbide bit purchased in 2012 (!!!) but have replaced the siphon tube and Y valve two or three times.

 

[ZRX61]

I have all sorts:
Walnut shells
Glassbeads (coarse & fine)
SkatBlast (ground up windshields, like glass beads with a bad attitude)
Aluminum oxide
Nylon beads (used for cleaning up vises etc before they get glassbeaded, removes paint & other ****)
Formica beads, although "formica chunks" would be more descriptive.

I'm lucky enough to live near a media blast company that will sell 5gal buckets of various media if you show up with up with your own buckets. They buy the stuff in 55gal drums by the pallet load.

 

[finn]

Go to the TP tools web page and download their catalog. You can pick up some tips there.

They sell an upgraded tube and gun to fit the HF cabinet if you’re having trouble. They also have a sieve that came with my previously owned cabinet. I use it to screen the media, as it gets contaminated with rust. I am using the black media from either Menards or HF. I think the last bag was from Farm and Fleet.

I stayed away from the HF cabinet because so many people here bad mouthed it. However, I have recently stumbled over a bunch of YouTube videos, and it seems generally well accepted as a decent budget cabinet there. There are many videos on reducing leakage and adding a valve with modified feed.

Make sure you get a good dust extraction system. The Skat that came with my cabinet works better than the shop vac and 5 gallon home made system I had on my previous cabinet.

Don’t use silica sand or play sand. It makes too much dust so you can’t see, and the silicosis it causes will kill you.

Get some plastic sheeting to protect the window. I have swap meet sheets from a cabinet vendor, but the PO of my cabinet said he used some sort of plastic he found at Menards that costs pennies compared to the commercial sheets.

 

[ZRX61]

One other thing:
You can't get buckets under most of the cabinets to drop the media into, but restaurant bus trays are perfect. Low enough to fit & will hold 5 gal of media (if you get the deeper ones). I got a Rubbermaid one from Amazon that's 7.125 gal. The smaller ones are 4.6gal which is fine if you don't dump an entire 5 gal bucket of media in the hopper.
Then it's easy to tip the media back into a 5 gal bucket through a sieve.
The TP sieve fits the top of a 5 gal bucket.

 

[ZRX61]

Get some plastic sheeting to protect the window. I have swap meet sheets from a cabinet vendor, but the PO of my cabinet said he used some sort of plastic he found at Menards that costs pennies compared to the commercial sheets.

I cover the glass in 2in strips of scotch tape. When it gets difficult to see through I just remove one strip. When that area gets difficult to see through, remove another strip & so on.

 

[finn]

One other thing:
You can't get buckets under most of the cabinets to drop the media into, but restaurant bus trays are perfect. Low enough to fit & will hold 5 gal of media (if you get the deeper ones). I got a Rubbermaid one from Amazon that's 7.125 gal. The smaller ones are 4.6gal which is fine if you don't dump an entire 5 gal bucket of media in the hopper.
Then it's easy to tip the media back into a 5 gal bucket through a sieve.
The TP sieve fits the top of a 5 gal bucket.

Black plastic masonry mud trays from Menards, etc work well.

I have a small Econoline Benchtop blaster that I simply extended the legs to get a more friendly (for the back) working height.

 

[CudaChick1968]

Black plastic masonry mud trays from Menards, etc work well. ...

That's what I use to hold the media after screening it ... when a bolt or something flies out of the cup and falls through the expanded metal grate into the hopper of my 5 foot SkatBlast ...


$hit happens.

Another tip along similar lines: buy some cheap needlenose and slip joint pliers and permanently dedicate them to your cabinet. They're a lot less expensive than a replacement glove ($26-40 each) which will get pulverized and ripped if you use it to hold small things.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

My number one go to media is 80 grit aluminum oxide. I use it to strip paint, rust, corrosion, mill scale, and even powder coat off steel, aluminum, and pot metal items. It is rather slow on powder coat, but does get the job done. I have used white silica in an outdoor blaster, but not my cabinet. Occasionally, I do switch to glass beads, walnut shells, or sifted sand.

 

[e015475]

I normally buy the 50 lb bags of the ground glass - it seems to last quite a bit longer than glass bead and most of the stuff I do is steel

I keep some glass bead around for doing aluminum

For really delicate stuff I have walnut shells. You can buy walnut shells as reptile bedding at the pet store

I keep my sandblast cabinet reasonably warm with an incandescent light - helps a lot with the clumping from moisture

The glass window on my blast cabinet is just cheap glass from the hardware store. I typically have several made and put them on the shelf and change them out when I can't see enough. Three or four of them will last 4-5 years

A dust deputy or separator would be nice, but I just plug in the hose of the shop vac if I'm going to be blasting for more than a minute or two.

 

[67drake]

Thanks for all the info people. I didn’t think this would be an issue, but,….
Calling around today, Tractor Supply has medium and fine grit, a big box store about 40 miles away has coarse, but it’s silica. The private owned building supply place only has coarse silica. I live in a pretty rural area, so not tons of choices, so what chains carry all these different media? I’d like to avoid silica if possible.
Thanks

 

[May Pop]

Susposedly Farm and Fleet also has it. Get the finest as it works best in the HF cabinet. Ive gotten it from Tractor supply about 12-13 bucks.

Ron

 

[CudaChick1968]

Thanks for all the info people. I didn’t think this would be an issue, but,….
Calling around today, Tractor Supply has medium and fine grit, a big box store about 40 miles away has coarse, but it’s silica. The private owned building supply place only has coarse silica. I live in a pretty rural area, so not tons of choices, so what chains carry all these different media? I’d like to avoid silica if possible.
Thanks

The local monument place could get a pallet of my main favorite extra fine black slag but space is limited to a few bags at a time. I found it at the heavy equipment rental place about 35 miles away. Current price was $21.50 for 100 pounds.

 

[finn]

Thanks for all the info people. I didn’t think this would be an issue, but,….
Calling around today, Tractor Supply has medium and fine grit, a big box store about 40 miles away has coarse, but it’s silica. The private owned building supply place only has coarse silica. I live in a pretty rural area, so not tons of choices, so what chains carry all these different media? I’d like to avoid silica if possible.
Thanksri

Menards.

There’s a Menards on every street corner in Wisconsin. Just like bars with Friday night fish fries

 

[67drake]

Menards.

There’s a Menards on every street corner in Wisconsin. Just like bars with Friday night fish fries

Not where I live. Nearest stop light is over 20 miles away. Nearest Menards-40

 

[CudaChick1968]

Not where I live. Nearest stop light is over 20 miles away. Nearest Menards-40

I know the feeling!! So you live in BFE too then?

 

[67drake]

I know the feeling!! So you live in BFE too then?

I definitely do! Except being able to take a quick trip to the store, it’s paradise.

 

[Professor Fate]

Just some advice before you get really frustrated with that cabinet. Go on Youtube and review the multitude of videos modifying the cabinet. It will work a ton better and make a lot less of a mess.

I use glass beads from Harbor Freight in mine as I do a lot of cast aluminum. If you use a metering valve instead of a siphon tube you can use way less media in the cabinet also.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I have a similar cabinet, caulked the joints as recommended.....a Summit return for $75. I use glass bead for careful blasting and silica sand for the other stuff.


Shop vac pulls dust out and then vents to the outside via a roof vent.

 

[theoldwizard1]

You CAN use play/beach sand, but you have to dry it and screen it.

 

[finn]

You CAN use play/beach sand, but you have to dry it and screen it.

And make sure your life insurance is paid up for when silicosis gets you.

 

[engineer2]

I currently have mine set up for soda blasting. HF sells the soda. I can easily empty it and use grit.
Had some old cast iron car parts to sell. Did electrolysis on them first, then soda blasted. They came out great. Soda blasting works well on aluminum and die cast parts too.
Some may disagree, but soda blasting is better for intakes and heads since there is no chance of sand getting into an engine.
Cheap HF benchtop cabinet with lots of mods and sealing.

 

[whateg01]

I had 1 of those harbor freight cabinets,they leak like a sieve.
I'd silicone the daylights out of every joint on it.

If the dust collector you're using has enough pull, it only leaks inward

 

[Jim greengo]

The bottom of the harbor units don't come with 1,unless you get creative and build something to fit it.

 

[67drake]

Works good so far. No complaints for $99

 

[nitroracer20]

I got a lead on some coarse glass bead “clean brite” brand. I have been using black beauty. Is it comprable??

 

[CudaChick1968]

I got a lead on some coarse glass bead “clean brite” brand. I have been using black beauty. Is it comprable??

No. Glass bead leaves a very soft finish and black beauty is more aggressive.

You CAN use playground sand but in addition to the severe health risks, it's also a lot softer cut than good blasting media and turns to dust quickly.

 

[Metal-Marc]

I had 1 of those harbor freight cabinets,they leak like a sieve.
I'd silicone the daylights out of every joint on it.

This.

OP is going to have a crazy amount of dust all over the place.

I have the same blast cabinet and I use a dust deputy and a good shop vac if I want to see what I'm doing inside the cabinet.

Since I have a 60 gal 5HP chinese compressor, I have an extra 20 gal air tank on wheel right by the blast cabinet and a pressure gauge at eye level so I know when to stop blasting to get my air pressure up.

 

[Metal-Marc]

You CAN use play/beach sand, but you have to dry it and screen it.

Don't listen to this guy.

And make sure your life insurance is paid up for when silicosis gets you.

This.

 

[engineer2]

Any superfine non-soluble dust that gets in your lungs is called pneumoconiosis. "It is one of a group of interstitial lung disease caused by breathing in certain kinds of dust particles that damage your lungs."
Silicosis is a form of pneumoconiosis caused by very common silica particles.
You can wreck your lungs by breathing most any kind of fine particulates; coal slag dust, glass bead dust, etc.
Always wear an N95 or better respirator when sandblasting, even with a cabinet.
Seal up leaks and keep unprotected bystanders away.

 

[Jim greengo]

Any superfine non-soluble dust that gets in your lungs is called pneumoconiosis. "It is one of a group of interstitial lung disease caused by breathing in certain kinds of dust particles that damage your lungs."
Silicosis is a form of pneumoconiosis caused by very common silica particles.
You can wreck your lungs by breathing most any kind of fine particulates; coal slag dust, glass bead dust, etc.
Always wear an N95 or better respirator when sandblasting, even with a cabinet.
Seal up leaks and keep unprotected bystanders away.

Sounds like I've been dead for years and didn't know it,that's why I feel like hell! Hahaha

 

[buswedg]

I've noticed a lot of people on YT bead blasting engines using fine glass beads. Either dry or wet. I'm curious, I've always been told to avoid using anything other than soda when dealing with engine parts. Even with good prep and cleaning afterwards, I've been told it is close to impossible to get all the media out which would obviously cause issues down the line. Any opinions or disagreements? If there is a well-tested technique (ultrasonic cleaning aftwards?) then I'm open to giving it a try.

 

[engineer2]

All it takes is one glass bead to put a line up and down your freshly honed cylinder. In the old days blocks were hot tanked in a lye solution and then scrubbed by hand. Techniques have changed. I don't know what is used now, but I would not glass bead any engine parts that might cause hidden media to be ingested into the engine.